Sid Vicious Album Revisits a Puzzling Rock Tragedy

If it’s hard to know quite what to make of these live tracks, which were recorded at Max’s Kansas City in New York in the fall of 1978, it’s equally difficult to know what to think about Sid Vicious himself. Eighteen years after his death, Vicious remains one of the most puzzling--and tragic--of all rock celebrities.

Born John Simon Ritchie in London, Vicious was brought into the Sex Pistols by Johnny Rotten in 1977 to replace the punk group’s original bassist, Glen Matlock. He was not only a marginal musician, but also a deeply troubled young man who responded to his 15 minutes of fame by taking the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll cliche to new, nightmarish extremes.

When his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was found stabbed in his hotel room in the fall of 1978, Vicious was charged with her murder. He was out on bail when he died of a heroin overdose at age 21.

In reviewing an album of Vicious recordings that was released posthumously, the New Rolling Stone Record Guide called the collection “deliberately ghoulish, a necrophiliac exploitation of the most rancid and destructive side of punk.”

In truth, Vicious’ entire career was exploitation. Many Pistols fans romanticized the slender musician as a free spirit who was living up to the true, anti-establishment spirit of punk. It was a naive view that failed miserably to see the consequences of Vicious’ physical and emotional deterioration.

On these tracks recorded a few weeks before Spungen’s death, Vicious, who was backed by the Clash’s Mick Jones and a couple members of the New York Dolls, sings a variety of songs--from the Eddie Cochran hit “Something Else” to the Frank Sinatra anthem “My Way”--without much of a voice or a true vision.

There’s scant value to the music, but there is something of value in the album as a historical document. It’s a sad, sobering reminder of how musicians and fans can allow their love of what’s trendy and thrilling to blind them to truth and reason. R.I.P., Sid.

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